• Dumbing Us Down

  • The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling
  • By: John Taylor Gatto
  • Narrated by: Michael Puttonen
  • Length: 3 hrs and 19 mins
  • 4.8 out of 5 stars (1,298 ratings)

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Dumbing Us Down  By  cover art

Dumbing Us Down

By: John Taylor Gatto
Narrated by: Michael Puttonen
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Publisher's summary

Thirty years in New York City's public schools led John Gatto to the sad conclusion that compulsory schooling does little but teach young people to follow orders like cogs in an industrial machine. With over 100,000 copies in print since its original publication in 2002, this book is collection of essays and speeches and contains a description of the wide-spread impact of the book and Gatto's "guerrilla teaching".

About the author: John Gatto was a teacher in New York City's public schools for over 30 years and is a recipient of the New York State Teacher of the Year award. A much sought after speaker on education throughout North America, his other books include Weapons of Mass Instruction: A Schoolteacher’s Journey through the Dark World of Compulsory Schooling, A Different Kind of Teacher, and The Underground History of American Education.

©2002 John Taylor Gatto (P)2012 Post Hypnotic Press, Inc

What listeners say about Dumbing Us Down

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Very insightful.

Any additional comments?

I don't know why I took so long to purchase this title! Definitely a food for thought listen, and not just for those disenchanted with the traditional schooling experience. I came away challenged to change the way my children are being educated, and we home educate!

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13 people found this helpful

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He speaks the truth because he was a cog

what we all thought about our school-experience but were afraid to say outloud. Tremendously moving.

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13 people found this helpful

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Required reading to see why kids hate school

What made the experience of listening to Dumbing Us Down the most enjoyable?

This book is a collection of essays that were written by a highly decorated teacher discussing the ways he was ashamed to a pert of the American schooling process- I keep remembering him talking about how he would grant permission for a child to use the bathroom knowing they did not have to go- that they just wanted water to move around but he would consider this a kind of favor to be repaid, He mostly talks about how the current system kills the natural curiosity of children and ensures that they will despise learning and intellectual topics. For those wondering the only semi solution given is home school and there really is not a lot of advice in there for people who want to start homeschooling

What other book might you compare Dumbing Us Down to and why?

There are some good movies that follow this theme-- The War on Kids, The Cartel -and- Waiting for Superman.

If you could give Dumbing Us Down a new subtitle, what would it be?

The broken format of your kids' school

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10 people found this helpful

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Astonishing

To listen to this book and recognize denied thoughts about formal schooling is astonishing. In the age of the computer it is hard to imagine institutionalized compulsory schooling still exists.

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8 people found this helpful

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Excellent and inspirational

Answers many questions of why we feel short changed and unfulfilled on completion of our academic sentence.

Would recommend to anyone who has stumbles upon it ( that's serendipity) and is half thinking of reading / listening.




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Wonderfully written

This is my most favorite book so far! It explains so much that is wrong with Society today! I pulled my own daughter out of public schooling her last 4 years! I was so happy to see her gain confidence that she never had while being schooled. No I understand what damages it had cases her in her young life.

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Earth Shattering Truths Well Told

Read this book and understand why modern public education does not work and can not be reformed. Written by an award winning public school teacher who offers real ideas for an alternative approach to how we raise children in the 21st Century.

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    4 out of 5 stars

Engaging Book and Philosophy

This is a very powerful treatise on the state of the American school system. It met my expectations based on the title. The author gives many convincing examples to support the "Dumbing Us Down". I thought back many times to my education and wished I could have a "do over". If you are considering homeschooling your child, this book will give you the push you need.





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4 people found this helpful

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A valuable perspective

My professor suggested I read this as my interest in the flaws of education and the disconnect from the "real world" were so great that they brought me to question it. I don't agree with everything the others states but the core ideas and the over arching truth that this current system is not the way was clearly presented and better defined than any other resource I have found. Read it and see!

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Do you want to pull your kids out yet?

Homeschoolers love this book. Why? It points out (and exaggerates and makes blanket stereotypical statements about) all the ills of public education. Public school education has its problems and in an ideal world we could all be tutored one-on-one by George Wyeth as Thomas Jefferson was. (google TJeD) Unfortunately, that is not the world we live in. There are so many issues brought up by this book it would take a hundred volumes of the same size to discuss them all. What came first - the chicken or the egg? the breakdown of education or the breakdown of the family? This is a good listen. It will make you think...unless you can't because you grew up in a public school as I did. (sarcasm)

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